Losing Weight and calorie Intake

[Victor1234]

I am trying to find out where I can find information about how many calories I need to eat as types of food to eat and stay away from. I have been wanting to lose weight.

[Esya]

I don't fully understand your question. Do you mean you want to find out how many calories to eat? Or how much should be carbs, protein and fat?

For losing weight your calories in has to be below your calories out. It does not matter how the breakdown of the food is. So log your foods to track calories and you will see which are high in calories and which are low. Then you can start lowering the amount of calories you eat each day.

[Victor1234]

I am not sure I am just wanting to lose weight the right way and I am not sure what I should Track Calories, Carbs or what and how to do it the right way.

Victor

[Esya · Accepted solution]

Just keep doing what you are doing and start logging that. When you use FitBit or MyFitnessPal (links to FitBit) for logging food, it will also log your carbs etc. Then you have a base and you can look into what you want to change.

[Victor1234]

Thank You for your thoughts and information. It will help me for sure.

[RyanHarrison]

Hi Victor, tracking your weight for a 2 week period and taking an average to see how fast you are gaining/losing weight is the best way to ensure you are progressing. I would suggest you weigh yourself each morning before eating and after going to the toilet, along side this you will need to track what you eat on a daily basis on an app such as my fitness pal and take your average calories from this over the week. From this we can figure out how many calories you need to maintain as we know that 3500 calories over maintenance weekly will result in around a 1lb gain, 3500 calories less than your maintenance would lead to a 1lb weight loss. From this point you can alter your calorie intake to ensure you are losing the amount of weight weekly you would like to lose. Can i also point out that you should not restrict yourself from any foods or drinks as long as it fits into your calorie intake, try and get at least 80% of your diet from wholesome foods and use the remaining 20% to eat the foods which arent seen as so good but what you enjoy as this will keep you sane whilst seeing amazing results. No food/drink/alcohol in isolation makes you gain weight, it all comes down to calories in vs calories out. If you require any more info please come back to me and i can send you my email.

Hope this helps.

[elimari]

I don't agree with weighing yourself 2x before/after toilet but I do agree with using a running average on  daily weight (or using a less frequent weighing schedule for anyone prone to being too obsessive). 

There is a really great site: www.trendweight.com that you can link to your fitbit account or directly to some wifi scales (I use a wiithings scale linked to fitbit which is linked to trendweight). 

Trendweight calculates your running average weights/bf%/lean mass and lets you know what the trend is, and what it means for how many calories more/less you are eating than you are burning.

Very nice simple site for data and it is way healthier to look at the running average and how your weight is trending than to focus on the exact number on your scale. Similarly it is best to think of how many calories you eat and burn on averages so you don't beat yourself up for going over now and then (and once you have averages to maintain improve you can decide to be really strict most days and way crazy on a "cheat day" or to be more moderate with your restriction and then more moderate on the days when you eat more. Both methods are ok and can end up with the same average calories consumed/calories burned but depend on each person's lifestyle, personality, body). 

[RyanHarrison]

Thanks for response.

Just to point out i didnt advise getting weighed twice. I stated it should be at the point where you have been to the toilet but before eating.

[ReneeWilliamson]

Well, I am looking for something same. Can anybody help me on how to reduce the belly fat and without losing much weight?

[Dominique]

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@ReneeWilliamson wrote:

Can anybody help me on how to reduce the belly fat and without losing much weight?

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@ReneeWilliamson: the only way to "spot-reduce" fat (whether it’s around your belly or anywhere else) is via liposuction, something most people wouldn’t want to resort to. If you want to do it via your dietary intake, you just have to create an adequate caloric deficit and hope the fat will go from the "desired" area. Exercise (particularly resistance training) as well as eating enough protein can also help maximize fat loss and minimize loss of lean tissue.

[Concord]

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@ReneeWilliamson wrote:

Well, I am looking for something same. Can anybody help me on how to reduce the belly fat and without losing much weight?

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Have you ever seen guys with huge bellies and a concave rear end? This is due to visceral fat, also called abdominal obesity or good old beer gut. Try consuming carbohydrates that are lower on the glycemic index.